Starshine
by Gamemakers
Summary: In which the destruction of the Hosnian system does not bring Ren the peace he had hoped for. Or, Hux wants to celebrate, Ren doesn't want to think anymore, and the end result is the same.
1. Chapter 1

It had been all he could do to stay upright. Ren had braced himself for that moment, for he had heard Skywalker's stories of the destruction of Alderaan too many times to forget Obi-Wan's reaction, but it was far worse than he had imagined. Billions of voices screamed inside his head, fear and agony kaleidoscoping together, and just as suddenly as they had appeared, they vanished. A half-second later, the second wave hit him, the aftershocks continuing as the remaining three planets were blasted into rubble.

Ren's knees had tried to crumple beneath him, but sheer willpower kept him upright. He would not show such weakness before the crew. But even after the last wave had subsided, he could hear them, the phantom whispers of pain as friends and relatives across the galaxy realized what had become of their loved ones.

 _It's your fault. You did this._

And they were right. Of course they were, and he should be proud. It would be nearly impossible for the Republic to recover from such a devastating loss. Today marked the beginning of a new era for the First Order, one of victory and prosperity, one that he had ushered into being. And yet here he was, waiting just long enough to avoid suspicion or concern before excusing himself to his private chambers. Not that he needed to excuse himself. With Hux gone, there was no question that the _Finalizer_ was his and his alone. He required nobody's permission to do anything now, nor did he ask for it. Ren had all the power in this situation, and yet he was drowning in the void the Hosnian system had left behind. The trillion spirits joined those of the Jedi, clawing at his mind, adding to the constant reminders that he was to blame. Guilt was bred to be a silent threat, but even domesticated nexus had claws.

To reject guilt was to be a Sith. Jedi harbored their guilt, allowing it to fester within them until it infected their every decision. How many years had Obi-Wan spent in the desert, brooding over every moment spent with Anakin Skywalker and wondering what he could have done differently? Luke Skywalker could have destroyed the First Order in its earliest years, but instead, he had hidden himself away from his failings.

He couldn't allow himself to linger long on those thoughts. Ren sped up, now moving far faster than was dignified. It didn't matter if someone saw him. He could mind-rub the memory away, kill them if they were strong-willed. He had the power to do so. His hand tightened around his lightsaber hilt. Ren couldn't remember grabbing for it, but the weight of it in his hand was comforting. But it's still such a long way until he's back in his cabin – damn Hux for assigning him quarters so far away from the bridge – and he can't do this anymore, and it's not the first time Ren has wondered if he's not as committed as he wanted to believe, and –

The first slash against the wall was unintentional, as he only realized halfway through the strike exactly what he'd done. _What if that had been a person?_ And why should he care? They – all of them – were beneath him. It was his _right_ to do with them as he pleased. Ren knew exactly what he was doing with the second swipe, and he enjoyed every second of it. In moments like this, with the dark side coursing through his veins, thick and intoxicating, he could be sure of what he had to do.

 _Anger is a path to the dark side._ How right Skywalker had been.

They're still in there, but with rage pounding in his ears, he can hardly hear them. Ren drags the tip of his lightsaber along the wall for the next few steps, leaving a thin, glowing scar in the wall. It was juvenile, vandalism, but it worked. And if it kept the leader of the Knights of Ren securely rooted in the dark side, it was more than worth the custodial budget to fix any damage he'd done.

Ren allowed the helmet to drop to the ground as soon as the door shut behind him. The _clang_ of metal against metal echoed in the sparsely furnished chamber, and had the floor been made of any weaker material, it surely would have left a dent. Snoke would never know about it. Hux might see a piece of paperwork cross his desk about it, but he wouldn't care. Some janitorial crew member would get the assignment and spend a few extra hours fixing his mess, but they didn't matter.

Good. Their opinions, their lives, had no meaning for him. The Jedi preached the value of all life, but those teachings, like so much of Skywalker's dogma, was steeped in naïveté.

He wasn't slipping. The shock had merely taken him by surprise. Ren paced around the room for a moment before dropping to the floor. Meditation should help. If he centered himself, processed what had happened, then everything could be back to normal.

The ebb and flow of the Force was like a tide washing over him, and Ren let the currents pull him further in. His breathing and heart rate slowed as he examined the added power that came with the success of Starkiller. The galaxy was slowly tipping toward the dark, and he knew that this moment was the awakening that Snoke had sensed. For here sat the precipice, and beyond this point, the light had no place.


	2. Chapter 2

He had been against the idea of a ceremony. It was unnecessary, a waste of valuable resources. For every troop that attended, a station was left empty, a post not filled. Should anything go wrong today, the effects could be catastrophic. It was not the time to understaff. From the few historical accounts that existed of the destruction of Alderaan, there had been no pomp and circumstance onboard the Death Star. A command given, a lever pulled, and the planet disappeared. A crisp, clean example of military efficiency at its finest, and one he believed the First Order would do well to emulate.

But despite his initial misgivings, Hux could not deny the thrill that went through him as he stood before the crowd. He had written this speech weeks ago, tweaking it here and there right up until this morning, but he had not anticipated the power that he would feel as he was giving it. Passion was not an emotion many would associate with him, and rightly so. But standing here with the knowledge that a force strong enough to destroy entire systems was brewing beneath him was intoxicating. And knowing that he was the one who would unleash it, for he and Snoke alone had that authority, only added to the excitement. It would be hyperbole to compare his euphoria as the red beam erupted from the center of Starkiller Base to orgasm, but not by much.

The engineers had calculated that it would take twenty-one minutes and seventeen seconds for the beam to reach the first planet of the Hosnian system. Everyone on the five planets was already dead. They just wouldn't realize it for almost a half an hour.

After the beam disappeared from sight, the plaza remained silent. A part of Hux would like to attribute that to the superior training regimen that this generation of Stormtroopers had completed. The more reasonable portion, however, understood that such order and discipline rarely came from anything besides awe and fear. In this case, both seemed appropriate. The troops, well-trained as they were, retained some amount of humanity, and in moments like this was when that fault in their training best shone through.

Hux was no exception to this rule of silence. For the first time, worry began to creep in. Could the engineers have made a mistake? Would the weapon truly work, or had they made an error, targeted the beam a billionth of a degree off, where over the vast distances of space the error would manifest itself in missing by a million kilometers? Humans made mistakes, after all, and even machines could not be perfect. Dozens of scenarios, each one worse than the last, flashed through his mind in those moments, building up into a knot of worry deep in Hux's stomach. He felt his heartbeat quickening, the pulse growing ever tighter against the neck of his jacket. In the First Order, a general was responsible for those under his command. Any error, no matter how distantly from his command it had been made, would be as attributable to Hux as the individual who made it. And after the recent fiasco regarding FN-2187, he doubted the Supreme Leader would be merciful.

Time stretched before him. Hux waited, stock-still with perfect military posture, as thousands of troops marched back inside and to their stations. The plaza had been designed to hold fifteen thousand and clear within ten minutes. It was reassuring to see that at least some of the First Order's engineers were competent.

"Sir, all communications with the Hosnian system have been interrupted."

Some of the tightness that had gathered in his shoulders uncoiled. But downed communications did not necessarily indicate that Starkiller's weapon had succeeded. "Keep me informed of any updates."

"Of course, sir."

Finally, Hux dragged himself from his spot. One could not waste all their time on ceremony. That was reserved for the least effective leaders, the ones who swooped down to accept credit after the battles had been won. The useful leaders knew that their role was to make everything run smoothly, to coordinate every day's actions until they culminated in victory.

That being said, once the reports that the Hosnian system had indeed been destroyed came in, Hux saw no harm in taking the rest of the day off. It was a small luxury, and not one he would become accustomed to. There would be drinking and merriment in the officers' lounge tonight, but he had no interest in those activities. Instead, he made his way down to his private quarters, located far beneath the command center, as close to the main heater as he felt was reasonable. Hux, like most of the officers, had grown up on a planet far warmer than Starkiller Base, and if he had the authority to decide housing assignments, he saw no reason why he should not be comfortable.

He made sure to lock the door behind him before removing his greatcoat and gloves. Hux placed his hat neatly on its designated hook and padded into his bedroom. There, he quickly thumbed through his datapad, for he could not risk missing an urgent communiqué before pushing his work away entirely. It may be his duty to be on call at all times, but even a general needed a bit of a life outside the military.

He allowed himself a grin as he reached for his personal comink. There was someone he wanted to share this victory with, even if they could not be here with him.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:** This chapter is very M-rated.

* * *

It was his comlink that broke the silence, the calm. At first, he ignored it, deeply entrenched enough in the Force to tune it out, but the second beep was louder. Ren opened his eyes and looked towards the device. A glare wasn't enough to shut it off. A Force shove could send it crashing into the wall, cracking on impact with both the wall and the ground, but only a few people knew his comm code, and they were the type of people he would do well not to anger.

So Ren thumbed the button. "Ren." He didn't bother to keep the annoyance out of his voice.

"You should have picked up sooner." Hux. He should have known. Who else would the universe send to pester him at a time like this?

"Why are you comming me?"

There's a pause at the other end. That couldn't be good. The general did not make social calls. Or, more correctly, he hadn't until the recent shift in their relationship. "I want a status report on operations onboard the Finalizer. I've allowed celebrations to continue until twenty-one hundred hours on Starkiller, and was wondering what policies had been put in place." Business, then, at least supposedly. How dull.

"You would contact the bridge directly if that was all you wanted. I'm sure one of the idiots you promoted would fawn over the opportunity to report to you directly." Unnecessary, perhaps, but he hadn't had many opportunities these last few days to upset Hux. Everyone needed a hobby, yes?

The other line was quiet for a few seconds. "Am I to assume, then, that you are alone?"

Ren wasn't sure if that was meant as a scolding or an honest question. "Your officers are capable enough to be left alone for a few hours."

"And here I had been led to believe they were all idiots."

Ren could think of no response to that. "Why did you call?" Please, he silently begged, please distract me for a few minutes, drown them out so I can't hear them.

"I do want to know what's happening on the bridge, actually."

"I assume they're fine. I have had no emergency calls from them." Hux wasn't going to escape this so easily, no matter how he tried. "And?" he asked, his words pointed.

Now was when they would discover what happens when an unstoppable force meets an unbreakable wall. Ren had his predictions. Time to see just how well he knew his general. "I think you just wanted to talk to me. Couldn't get over how much you missed the sound of my voice." A part of him hated that bit of swagger, that bit of Solo, that crept into his voice at times like this, but he knew that Hux loved it. The man wouldn't admit it – of course not, Hux was too prim and proper for that – but Ren could tell.

He could picture the general now, probably in his office, maybe his bedroom, frowning at that. "I assure you that I've been far too busy to notice your absence." An image flashed through Ren's mind of Hux in the command center on Starkiller Base, an officer or two listening in on their conversation, worried at what their general might have gotten himself into.

Oh, that image was just too tempting. "Then perhaps it's my dick that you're missing." That would be sure to cause any eavesdroppers to abandon the conversation as quickly as possible.

Hux huffed. "I'm not going to dignify that with a response."

"Feel empty without me there to fil you up? Come on, General, you can tell me." This was far too much fun to even consider abandoning course. He felt a grin starting to pull at the corners of his lips, and Ren did nothing to fight it. This was a dangerous path, for it would be all too easy for Hux to end the call right now, and then he'd be alone with his thoughts again, but he couldn't help himself.

"I just wanted to say hello." Hux's words suggested regret, but the tone of his voice revealed no such emotion.

"We both know that you wanted to bask for a few extra minutes in the glory of your successes." And there was where the Organa slipped in. He chose not to dwell on that. "I saw your speech."

Hux perked up at that, if only slightly. Ren wondered if anyone besides him would notice the change. "What did you think of it?"

"You were incredible." It would be a lie to say anything else. Passion had rolled off of him, infecting everyone in the plaza. Hux's usual staid and stoic self had abandoned him during those moments, and Ren had been captivated. Thinking back to it, he could feel interest piquing in his groin, and he spread his legs a bit to release some of the pressure. "I couldn't stop thinking about it afterwards."

"I am glad to hear it was effective."

He hardly allowed Hux to finish his sentence. "Are you alone?"

"Yes. I would have stopped this conversation several minutes ago if I wasn't."

"You don't want your troops to know how much you want me?"

"That's hardly appropriate," Hux snapped.

"You aren't arguing the point." His hands wandered downwards to palm at his erection through his trousers. "While I was watching, I couldn't take my eyes off your mouth. All I could think about is how good it feels on me." Hux inhaled, his breath almost a hiss, and it pushed him forward. "A man with the power to destroy worlds, and yet he gets down on his knees and sucks my dick." His hand's motions had sped up now, rubbing back and forth in a way that was doing nothing to relieve the tension building inside him.

"Tell me more."

"You're in your bedroom?"

"Yes."

"Go grab the lube, then come back." In the moment of silence that followed, Ren stretched out with the Force, locating the bottle of lube he had stashed in his drawers for just such occasions and guiding it into his free hand. He struggled to open it with one hand as he pulled his pants down with the other, eventually setting aside the bottle to focus on his clothing.

"Finished." There was no way for Hux to know what he'd been doing, no way he should know that he'd won their little race, but the note of superiority was there all the same. He'd have to see what he could do to get rid of that. "Ren?"

He slicked up his hand and returned it to his newly-exposed erection, doing his best to hold in a moan. "Are you ready?"

"Of course."

"Lay back on the bed with your legs spread." His hand resumed its earlier motions, and Ren's eyes drifted shut as he imagined Hux following his command. Hux would still look meticulously well-groomed, he decided, and nearly unaffected. But if he looked closer, Ren would see that slight change in his eye color that came with arousal, the pink tinge to his cheeks. His general couldn't hide his interest entirely. He thrust upward into his hand at the thought.

"Tell me what you're doing to yourself."

"Just touching myself a bit." More than a bit now, for he was pumping his hand up and down in the steady rhythm he usually preferred, but this was supposed to be about Hux.

"If you're going to let this be over with so quickly, I'm going to go put my clothes back on."

"No!" That came out more desperate than he had intended.

Hux paused for a few seconds, allowing the threat to fully sink in. "Move your hand away."

Had it been any situation, he would have been defiant, but now, he didn't dare. The cool air felt even colder against his erection, still wet with lubricant, but he needed the sound of Hux's voice.

"Now," Hux added, convinced his orders were being followed, "Tell me what we're going to do once you come back to base."

His tongue felt heavy, but Ren knew the only way he would find any release tonight was if he started talking. "I'm going to find you. I don't care where you are. I hope you're out with the troops." Once the words started coming, they flowed through him without a conscious thought. "I'll drag you away and back to your quarters. Maybe I'll give an excuse of an emergency that we need to take care of, but I probably won't. I want them to know how much you want me."

Hux groaned, and it sent a jolt through every nerve of his body. "I rip your shirt as I'm taking it off. You want to be mad at me, but you aren't, because all either of us wants is for me to be inside of you as quickly as possible." He wanted nothing more now than to take his erection in his hand and stroke himself as he continued through the rest of this, but surely Hux would stop him. "Your skin bruises so easily when I bite you, but that's not going to stop me. You'll have bruises up and down your throat for days afterwards." Biting, it had quickly become clear, was one of Hux's biggest weaknesses. He could turn the man into putty in his hands in seconds with just a few nips to his shoulders. "Are you going to beg for me after that, or are you going to make me work harder for it?"

A few ragged breaths passed before Hux answered. "I'm not going to give in so easily."

"I'm not so sure. Think what a mess you are right now." Mess, a word certain to get a reaction from the general. "What are you doing to yourself?"

"Stroking myself off."

"No, tell me more. I want to be able to picture you." He had long since forgotten about the cold of the durasteel floor against his back, but when he tried to shift, his back screamed against the pain.

"I'm in my bed, over the covers, with my legs spread the way you said you wanted them to be." He should have known that Hux would deliver a full report with minimal prompting. The man was always efficient, sometimes maddeningly so.

"Naked?"

"Entirely."

"Good." He could see it perfectly, but it wasn't the image he needed right now. "Roll over onto your knees, ass up in the air. I want to see you open and ready for me."

There was a pause as Hux shifted. "And what are you going to do to me now?"

"I'm hardly going to bother with preparing you. You're so ready for me that you only let me get one finger in before you're begging." He would trace the contours of Hux's back, stopping to admire the freckles there, as the man squirmed beneath him, anxious for it to be over.

The real Hux, he assumed, was not far off, for he was moaning openly now. "Don't hold back. I want to hear how good this is for you."

"Ren, Ren, kriff."

"It's going to be tight when my dick's first inside you, and for a minute, we're both afraid I've ripped you apart. But then it's so good, and it's so tight that neither of us can think anymore, and we're like animals. I'm going to pull on your hair as I fuck you, General. We both know you like that." In his imagination, the gel was slick and greasy on his fingers, but he did not let go as he pistoned his hips against Hux's. "You're a moaning mess now." The statement worked equally well as observation and fantasy. "We both know you're not going to last much longer."

"Ren, Ren I-"

"I know, Hux. Let it come. Come on, I want to hear you. I want to know how good I'm making you feel right now."

He counted four more pants before Hux groaned, and it was all too easy to imagine the man coming all over his perfectly pressed white coverlet. Ren's hips thrusted into empty air at the thought. His erection still begged for attention, but he still denied it. Tonight, permission would come from Hux and Hux alone.

"You may get yourself off now." He sounded far too put together for a man who had fallen apart not thirty seconds prior, but Ren had come to expect that of Hux. He didn't question the order, jacking himself off with more force than was probably necessary. His moans punctuated the silence as he worked, too focused on his own pleasure to process Hux's encouragement. He came embarrassingly quickly, making a mess of the floor around him, but Ren was too far gone to care.

His heartrate had not yet slowed back to normal when he again heard Hux's voice. "If you have nothing else to report, I should return to my duties." There was regret there, but it stung all the same.

"No, I have nothing else."

"Goodnight, Ren. I look forward to your arrival on Starkiller."

"I'm sure you do."

Hux ended the call, and with the click of the line closing, Ren was again alone in the silence. And in silence, the world of death and despair, those of the Hosnian system would ensure he was never at peace again.


End file.
